Couple experiments with ways to renovate that will reduce energy use and utility bills

By Marisa Demarco

The neighbors are curious. With its straw-bale walls, Peggy Loftfield's house looks like something out of the "Three Little Pigs." Peggy and her husband Earl were looking for a way to save money after retirement. They moved here from Massachusetts last spring. After a lifetime's worth of interest in ecological, sustainable living, the two decided to pour all their knowledge into the grand experiment that will be their North Valley home.

It's over. Well, almost over. Tens of thousands of you marched to the polls on Election Day, determined to cast votes that would decide our state's and country's future. Slightly more than a week later, the results are in.

Why lefties love charter schools

Campaigns should focus less on TV and more on shaking hands

By Jerry Ortiz y Pino

I went out Saturday morning to pick the daily paper off the lawn and take down my “Madrid for Congress” signs. It was, after all, four full days after the polls closed. I went to bed Friday night with the image of a smiling Heather Wilson toasting her victory with a glass of orange juice still vivid in my memory.

Election Eve Council meetings often end early, but on Nov. 6 one blockbuster bill and several side dishes kept councilors working late. Councilor Debbie O'Malley sponsored an administration proposal to expand city recycling services to multi-family dwellings of more than 25 units. The proposal passed unanimously.

A conversation with Mark Rudd of The Weather Underground on violence, the FBI, Che Guevara and a Palestinian named Jesus

By Jim Scarantino

In “The Real Side” ["Now Starring in the People's Republic of Albuquerque!" Oct. 26-Nov. 1], I wrote about the curious coincidence of Albuquerque attracting former leaders of The Black Panther Party, EarthFirst! and The Weather Underground. In the column, I imagined the ex-radicals holding forth about their regrets and their take on current events. Mark Rudd, formerly of The Weather Underground, accepted that invitation. Here’s my conversation with a man who helped form an organization that bombed the Capitol and for a decade waged war against the United States of America.

Don't Forget—It's a good story. Pat Tillman, a defensive back for the Arizona Cardinals, left the NFL and penned his name to a stint with the Army Rangers, forgoing a $3.6 million contract. Talk about your American hero. That move's got football, war and sacrifice all in one.

Dateline: England--A 22-year-old lad who came up with the brilliant idea of launching a bottle rocket out of his own backside in celebration of Bonfire Night ended up in a Sunderland hospital with a scorched colon. “We received a call stating there was a male who had a firework in his bottom and it was bleeding,” Douglas McDougal, from the North East Ambulance Service, told BBC News. The man was described as being in stable condition following the removal of a Black Cat Thunderbolt Rocket from his rectum. “He sustained fairly significant injuries,” reported McDougal. “There’s a lot of major blood vessels ’round that area, so infection would probably be a huge problem for him. And also the body naturally produces methane gas, so combine that with the firework and the exploding effect with methane’s flammability--it certainly could have been a lot worse than it really was.”

Jim Scarantino's opinion piece on Burque's Free Radicals of bygone fame/infamy [The Real Side, “Now Starring in the People's Republic of Albuquerque!,” Oct. 26-Nov.1] was thoughtful and fun to read, but Jim did glide over some important distinctions. There is a world of difference among the three men noted in Jim's article, and Mark Rudd, for one, has long publicly distanced himself from the more absurd stances and actions of the Weather faction. Lumping all three together as apologists for violence is misleading. But they are each quite articulate still, and can speak for themselves.